Your Career: Doing What Matters Most

Transcription

1 In this unit, you will: Examine the relationship between career choice and earning potential Explore how education and training affect career choices and earning potential Consider the value and costs of career preparation Examine how employee benefits enhance earning potential Identify factors that affect earning potential and financial planning Compare the pros and cons of working for yourself versus working for others Your Career: Doing What Matters Most What will you do after you finish high school? Go to college? Enter a trade school? Join the military? Start working in a full-time job? Your choice will affect your career and future earnings. In fact, getting more education and training usually means building a niche of expertise and getting more money in future paychecks. Throughout this program, we have talked about ways to spend or save your money. Now it s time to focus on the other side of the equation your income. And the biggest factor in determining that income is the work you choose. Ideally, you d like to find work you love work that pays you enough to live comfortably and helps you achieve your financial goals. All that involves making wise choices. And it includes understanding how other factors such as education and training affect your career path and earning potential. It also means knowing how employee benefits can add value to your earnings and reduce your costs, such as those for education, training, and insurance. 95

2 What Do You Think? With a partner, indicate whether you think each statement is true or false: Forty-four percent of teenagers worked last summer.? Most of them worked full-time jobs (35 or more hours a week). Teens most often work in the food service and retail industries. The average American will have had 10 jobs between the ages of 18 and 38. Every year, about one-tenth of workers change jobs to take advantage of better opportunities. Source: U.S. Department of Labor s Bureau of Labor Statistics What Should Dante Do? Dante is thinking about becoming a computer support technician because he really enjoys fixing computers for his friends and family. But he s not sure what he should do after high school graduation. He could go to a vocational school specifically for fixing computers and graduate in less than two years. But his parents are encouraging him to go to college, pushing graduation out to four years. They say that he can still study computers in addition to getting a broader degree in case he wants to go into another area of computers or, perhaps, something entirely different. What do you think he should do? Making Cents of Your Career Would you rather have a job or a career? You re probably thinking, What s the difference? There s a big difference! A job provides you with the basics cash and something to do to earn it. A career is your chosen occupation. It too provides an income and an activity. But it also provides challenges, opportunities for advancement, and real satisfaction with what you do. A job doesn t necessarily make you want to get up in the morning, inspire you to take a deep interest in your work, or provide you with fulfillment. But a career may. Right now, you may have a part-time job, but your career is being a student. Your part-time job provides you with money so you can enjoy life a little more. But your full-time job is to go to class and study. You love some of your classes; others you barely tolerate. And this full-time job doesn t pay you right now, but later, it can pay off in a big way. So now, going to school and studying are what you have to do to achieve your current career goal graduation. 96 UNIT SEVEN Your Career: Doing What Matters Most

3 Remember back in Unit 1 where you set your financial goals? Your career choice becomes a major player in helping you accomplish those goals because it affects how much income you can potentially make. Most likely, a higher-paying job means you can achieve your goals faster. But your career choice also determines your lifestyle how much time you ll have in your life for other things. So if one of your goals is to take long vacations and travel a lot for fun, you may want to rethink your decision to be a high-powered executive at a big company. That s because your career will not only determine the level of income you can make, it ll also determine the amount of time you can spend outside of work. Think about it. Whether they re playing at local clubs or sports arenas, musicians usually end up working at night when all of their friends are relaxing and unwinding from a full day of work. Obstetricians have to be on call around the clock, ready to deliver babies whenever their patients go into labor. Real estate agents do a lot of their work on weekends when potential clients have time to look at houses. Bakers go to work when the rest of the world is sleeping, so all of their pastries are freshly baked for the first customers of the day. Career choices affect both the amount of money you make and the type of life you live. Your values also determine your earning potential. Some people are willing to do whatever it takes to make it big and earn a lot of money, such as working long hours and traveling often for business. Others are willing to make a little less because they aren t as driven by money. Instead, they prefer to balance hard work with reasonable hours so they can have time to spend with their families or hobbies. Your values also dictate whether you ll be happier in the (usually) higher-paying corporate world or the lower-paying arena of nonprofit organizations. There are other things that affect your earning potential, and we ll talk soon about those. Earning a lot of money can bring you financial stability and influence within your community. It can also give you more flexibility in making lifestyle decisions. For example, you can better afford to take time off to spend with your family. You can also afford to have a personal trainer whip you into shape. How would earning more money make your life easier? The one thing money can t do, though, is make you happier. Studies show that after a year, lottery winners are back to being as happy (or unhappy) as they were before hitting the jackpot. 1 And another study in Science magazine shows just how little connection there is between money and happiness. It found that 61 percent of people earning less than $20,000 a year reported being pretty happy compared with about 52 percent of those earning more than $90,000 a year. 2 Simply put, money is important but it isn t everything. In fact, there are many people who are miserable in their jobs even though they take home big paychecks. Why? Lack of personal satisfaction the true bottom line of any job. Personal satisfaction on the job means feeling that what you do is important and that you are valued by your company. For some people, it also means believing that what they do helps others. Some know they could make more elsewhere, but choose not to because maybe they ve built up enough time off so that they are able to leave work early for their children s soccer games. And some people prize the connection they have with their co-workers. In short, a career you love is always about more than just money. 1 Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, August 1978; 36(8): Random Samples, Science, August 26, To love what you do and feel that it matters how could anything be more fun? Katherine Graham 97

4 Exercise 7A: Why Do People Work? List reasons that people work. Organize those reasons into categories. Skills: The Currency of Your Career Face it you re going to be working for a long time. If you plan to retire at age 65, you ve more than four decades of work ahead of you. Can you imagine doing the same job for 40 years? Neither can most people. In fact, studies show that the average working American will have 10 jobs between the ages of 18 and 38 about one job every two years and have three to five careers during a lifetime. 1 But changing jobs and careers isn t just about relieving boredom. It s about continuing to grow and change throughout your work life. Traveling a lot for work may seem fun when you re in your 20s, but you may dread it once you get married and have kids. Or you might discover a passion along the way that you decide to turn into a career. You may also discover a talent you didn t know you had and let that guide you down a new path. People change jobs to make more money, advance their positions, or find more satisfying work environments. Changing careers, though, is usually about changing your lifestyle or finding something more fulfilling, or both. Exercise 7B: Rate Your Work Skills Below is a list of employee skills that employers want in their employees. Rate yourself in each skill area using the following rating scale: 1 for poor, 2 for developing, and 3 for good. Skill Rate Luckily, making a change doesn t have to mean completely starting over on the bottom rung of the ladder. That s because skills you develop in each job go with you and continue to develop and grow as you advance through your career. And transferable skills don t only include what you ve learned on the job. They include skills you ve acquired through volunteer work, hobbies, sports, and other life experiences that you can use in your next job or new career. For example, if you ve ever been a server in a restaurant, you ve probably developed good communication skills in your efforts to satisfy customers. This is great experience for jobs where customer service skills are important. Other transferable skills you may have picked up on the job are time management, working under pressure, and problem solving. Analytical Communication Computer Detail-oriented Flexibility and adaptability Honesty and integrity Interpersonal Leadership Motivation and initiative Organizational Self-confidence Strong work ethic Teamwork 1 U.S. Department of Labor s Bureau of Labor Statistics Source: Job Outlook National Association of Colleges and Employers. 98 UNIT SEVEN Your Career: Doing What Matters Most

5 Exercise 7C: Entry-Level Job Skills What do you need to know and be able to do on your first entry-level job? List the skills, qualities, and education needed for various entry-level jobs. As you know, people in entry-level jobs often develop skills that help them advance to higher-level jobs. Brainstorm one to two examples of higher-level jobs that are related for each entry-level job you listed. An example is given for you. Type of Job Lifeguard Skills Needed Strong swimming skills Active listening Communicate clearly Judgment and decision making Critical thinking Monitoring Personal Qualities Needed Reliable Cooperative Integrity Initiative Attention to detail Able to handle stress Good eyesight Desire to help others Leadership Education Needed At least 15 years old. Have current certifications: Lifeguard, CPR for Professional Rescuer, First Aid Basics Possible Next-Level Job(s) Water Safety Instructor (WSI) Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Marketable skills can come from many areas of your life. Aside from working part-time jobs while you re in school, two other ways to develop your skills are through volunteer work and internships. Employers love to see that you ve had some real world experience, and volunteer work is a great way to get it. Many short-handed nonprofit organizations and even some businesses like to hire dedicated volunteers. According to CareerBuilder.com, more than 60 percent of hiring managers say they count volunteer work as relevant experience. That s because it can give you the opportunity to build your resume with valuable marketable skills and on-the-job accomplishments. An internship is another option. It s also a great way to find out first hand whether or not a career path is the right one. In addition to work experience, an internship can provide valuable connections at the company where you re interning, possibly helping you to land a job there or with another company. And apparently, an internship can also boost your starting salary when you re ready to work full time. Nearly half of recently surveyed employers said that they offer a higher starting salary (about 7 percent higher on average 1 ) to entry-level job candidates with relevant internship experience. Another way to develop marketable skills is through education and training. Your education and training specific to a job or industry are always highly desired by employers, meaning that you are perceived as being more prepared than others to understand what the job requires and how to hit the ground running. But, employers value a general education as well, and it can pay to highlight your courses or projects that are particularly relevant to a job in which you re interested. 1 National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) 2006 Experiential Education Survey 99